


Tassels

by TheonSugden



Category: Emmerdale
Genre: M/M, bit of Violence, racy but not too explicit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-24
Updated: 2015-08-24
Packaged: 2018-04-16 23:59:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,328
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4644861
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheonSugden/pseuds/TheonSugden
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>More tension between Robert and Aaron, in various forms - this time over a silly outfit Aaron wears for a photo.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tassels

**Author's Note:**

> This was based on the outfit "Aaron" wore for a "summer of infidelity" photo shoot.
> 
> http://i1.cdnds.net/15/20/embargo_emmerdale_summer.jpg

“Look like a proper prat.”

Aaron barely managed to dodge the wet palm flying toward his cheek.

“That’s just your face, lad,” Adam chuckled, laughing in that full body way Aaron would hate if anyone else was doing it.

“Right, it’s comin’ off…” 

Aaron was about to sprint upstairs for a change when Victoria blocked the back exit.

“Don’t wanna tackle a girl,” Aaron groused, darting his head around to look for a way under her arms.

Victoria moved her arm long enough to point a sharp finger in his chest. 

“First of all, you’re a sexist…”

Aaron looked down at the memory of the last person who had said the same to him. 

“Yeah, heard that one before.” 

Victoria grinned at winning her first point before continuing.

“Second, this is for Finn. He’s goin’ to Portugal. Sun, sand, fit fellas…he might never come back if he thinks we won’t miss him!”

Aaron rolled his eyes.

“I won’t.”

“Well  _I_  will!” Victoria shouted, hurt, before turning to look at Adam. “And so will Adam. He’s Adam’s brother an’all!”

“Yeah…for about five minutes,” Aaron muttered, still unable to see anyone but Hannah and Holly in Adam’s family tree.

“Don’t matter, does it Adam? You’ll miss him loads, right Adam??”

Aaron knew he was beaten when he saw VIc shooting death glares at Adam.

“C-Course, babes,” he laughed, nervously, before blanching at Aaron’s own deadly eyebeams. “But y’know…Aaron’s already given him plenty. He could barely even walk the next day, right mate?”

Adam’s awkward banter laid on the floor and died with one last disgusted look from Aaron.

“Eugh,” he grimaced. “I’ll keep the flippin’ clown suit if it means he shuts it.”

“See? Problem solved,” Victoria chirped, patting him on the pasteled sleeve before grabbing Adam for a passionate kiss.

“ _Eugh_. It just keeps getting worse.”

He didn’t know how right he was until Robert walked through the pub doors.

“Vic, thought you might want to go to the cin…what are you wearing…?”

Aaron saw him try to mostly stare at Adam, not that they’d ever been good at keeping their eyes off each other in public.

“For Finn’s leaving do. Saw this in some old man beachwear ad…thought he’d have a laugh.”

For the first time since Vic had shoved it into his protesting hands, Aaron looked at his attire - really looked at it. Tight khaki slacks that didn’t even go down his ankles, some short-sleeve shirt that was cream or peach or whatever the fuck you called it, didn’t even have the decency to give him a collar to tug at. And worst of all…

“Are those turquoise slippers…with no socks?” Robert asked, smirking in that way Aaron only wanted to resolve by punching him in the mouth with his cock.

He couldn’t think those types of thoughts, especially in front of Robert’s sister.

“I just call ‘em green. Maybe you should be the star tonight…already dress like Finn. Maybe you can give ‘im a real go.”

Robert’s face slowly fell at the blatant hostility from his ex…whatever the fuck they were. Aaron couldn’t tell you. Or himself, for that matter.

Robert slipped an arm around Vic’s shoulder, showering praise on her, saying how lucky Finn was to have her. 

Aaron rolled his eyes again. He knew that line.

Robert glowered at him, a little too hard, enough to make Aaron almost feel bad.

At least until Robert’s next trick.

“Adam…turn around…give my lovely sister a show.”

Adam, confused but submissive as always, turned a few times, his hairy tummy showing through his upraised shirt.

Robert glanced at the supple bottom showcased in those tight trousers…made sure only Aaron could see the hint of a leer.

Aaron hated him. 

“Clearly Vic thinks he’s good to go, but she’s not exactly unbiased.”

Hated him.

“What do you think, Aaron?”

 _Hated him_.

He could either shrug, or do the laddish thing and say Adam was ugly as mud and twice as thick, or do what the remnants of his third pint were begging him to do…

“I think he’s fuckin’ gorgeous,” Aaron forced through a rictus grin, grabbing Adam’s bum-of-the-gods and squeezing hard enough to get a playful yelp. 

That bloody smirk crashing through the floor made Aaron’s day…month…year even.

“Don’t give Vic any ideas…” Adam laughed, playfully punching Aaron in the arm.

“Can’t blame him for havin’ eyes…or hands…but you’re all mine, even if you’re a proper idiot.”

“I think you’d better show me…while I show you just how proper I really am,” he shouted, picking her up and carrying her upstairs. “And we’re takin’ YOUR room, mate,” he yelled to Aaron before disappearing with Vic, her last words being a giggle to Adam that if he ruined his party clothes for shirt-ripping macho crap, she’d never speak to him again.

Aaron had almost forgotten Robert was there, pouting in a dark corner of the pub like the overgrown kid he was.

“Gonna take a leak. Tell Chrissie I said good luck,” he jeered, half-hoping Robert would leave, half-hoping he’d be right behind Aaron, tongue as good at spewing poison as it was at writhing Aaron into a total mess. 

Somewhere down low, Aaron wanted the fight, needed the fight. He knew Robert did too.

When he was washing his hands, he got his wish, Robert storming in and shoving him against the wall.

“Betcha stood out there, screwin’ up your face, trying to figure out whether to give the poor cow what you’re givin’ me right now,” Aaron sneered, not bothering to free himself from the elbow at his throat, even though they both knew he could. 

“The only thing I want to do right now is punch your lights out…”

He made one of those “angry” faces that always reminded Aaron of someone out of a boy band trying to seem hard.

“Don’t laugh at me, Aaron.”

Aaron’s smile faded as fast as he’d seen Robert’s fade not long earlier.

“Can’t help laughin’ at a joke.”

Robert looked hurt, hurt enough to make Aaron hurt for him, but he couldn’t stop.

“You strut in here, stir your shit way you always do, eye up me best mate, _your_ _sister’s boyfriend_ , way you always do, and nobody else notices ‘cos they’re too stupid…’cos they don’t know you like I do…”

He trailed off, knowing the more he talked the more obvious his real feelings were under all the posing and snapping.

“I guess you’re the only one who gets to ‘eye up’ your precious Adam,” Robert spat at him, still more hurt than angry.

“Damn right I am,” Aaron grinned, dark gleam shining in his eyes. “Now take your hands off me while you’ve still got ‘em.”

Robert stepped back, eyes widening as he got a good look at Aaron’s outfit for the first time. 

He chuckled when he saw the garish slippers.

“Tassels?” he said, repeating it in disbelief.

Aaron waited for the jab, but it never came. Instead just another laugh, softer this time.

“Look ridiculous, right?” he asked, almost hoping for another insult, an excuse to hate Robert…if he ever could.

“You look beautiful,” Robert said, quietly, looking down at the floor, then, suddenly, right at him.

The fear came back then, spreading through them both. Robert nearly said something else, something Aaron couldn’t hear even if he wanted to. He left, fast, so fast he nearly tripped in his overpriced Italian leather shoes, like he was the one been wearing the slippers-without-socks.

Aaron thought about going after him, having one of those romcom moments Mam loved so much, even if she always denied it, but he couldn’t do it. He couldn’t hurt himself that way again. Even he had his limits.

He washed his hands again, studying the face in the mirror, the red eyes, the bottom lip chewed from nerves and macho posturing.

“Beautiful.”


End file.
